Hockey, and particularly professional hockey, is known to be a dangerous sport. The players move around the ice at high speeds and often play with a certain level of physical contact. This physical contact can result in collisions between the players and with the boundaries of the skating rink. These collisions can vary in intensity, and can sometimes present a risk of serious injury to the players.
Skating rinks that are intended for hockey games are generally surrounded by dasher boards that define the boundaries of the ice and keep the puck on the ice. The dasher boards are generally about 40 inches (1 meter) high. Positioned on top of the dasher boards are transparent barriers (such as Plexiglas barriers) that provide a physical barrier between the players and the spectators, while still enabling spectators to view what is happening on the ice.
At various locations around the skating rink, doors are included for providing access to the ice. For example, there is an access door to each of the players' benches, and an access door to each of the two penalty boxes. The access doors to the players' benches are generally formed only from the dasher boards and do not have transparent barriers positioned on top. This allows players to jump right over the access doors onto the ice since there is no transparent barrier preventing them from doing so.
However, the lack of the transparent barriers over the access doors also means that the transparent barriers positioned on either side of the access doors either come to an abrupt end or define a corner where two transparent barriers join at 90 degrees. In either case, a sharp edge is created by these transparent barriers that can present a significant safety risk for players.
A deficiency with traditional skating rink constructions is that where the transparent barriers end prior to each access door, a sharp edge is left unprotected. When a player is pushed or body checked into the edge of a transparent barrier, the impact against this edge can cause serious bodily harm to the player. While in certain circumstances the edge of the transparent barrier is padded, traditional padding has not been found to provide sufficient protection when a player impacts this portion of the barrier.
In light of the above, it can be seen that there is a need in the industry for improved safety equipment for preventing injury to hockey players (and other skaters) from the exposed, or insufficiently protected, edge of the transparent barriers.